What is the inter-season cup?
This is the first time such a competition is held: six teams from the VTB United League, plus Mega from Serbia and Igokea from Bosnia and Herzegovina, will play one game a midweek. These won’t be full rounds, just single games – last Wednesday, Uralmash played Zenit; this week, it is us and PARMA. By the end of March, the teams in each of the two groups finish the full round-robin, and the Final Four will be held on April 10-12.
The tournament is called the Winline Basket Cup, and the title sponsor insisted that PARMA compete under its previous name, without mentioning their new sponsor, a competing bookmaker. Special uniforms have been designed for the teams, and a special black-and-white parquet floor is planned to be laid at the host arena for each game.
Lokomotiv Kuban’s opponents in Group A are CSKA, Mega, and PARMA. We’ll be starting against Perm.
This will likely be a special game for Lokomotiv center Royce Hamm, who spent last season with PARMA, leading the regular season in rebounds, and earned a call-up to the 2025 All-Star Game.
- How is the mood in the team, Royce?
- The mood is good. I feel like we're coming off a good win. Everybody's energy is right. Everybody's mindset is the right spot. I think we just got to clean up a couple of details, do better on the little things, and just continue to execute on the wins.
- How does it feel getting back to Perm?
- It's bittersweet. I'm in love that I'm in Loko now, but Perm will always have a special place in my heart just because of the substantial season that I had here last year and the effect that I had on a lot of people. I'm glad to just be back in the gym, to be around those fans, even though it's going to be different for them cheering against me this time. I think it'll be cool.
- What do you think of how PARMA's game changed this season?
- I think they added a lot of good guys. I like their team this year just from the outside looking in. I think they're going to continue to do good, but of course I want us to come in and do what we've got to do and just get the win and continue to improve ourselves.
- How have you ever played in cups like this?
- Yes. Last year I played with Perm. It was the first time we played in a tournament cup, but we didn't end up advancing that far. This year I want to advance with Loco. I want to try to get a chance to win it and see how that feeling is, because I never won an interseason tournament or anything like that.
Speaking of who is at PARMA with a Lokomotiv background, the first name that should be mentioned is, of course, their head coach, Yevgeny Pashutin. Yevgeny Yuryevich led Lokomotiv for two 2-year stints: during his first one (2012-2014), he won the EuroCup, and during his second (2019-2021), he was inducted into the VTB United League Hall of Fame. By the way, Pashutin played for Impuls Krasnodar for one season (1991-92), although that club has no affiliation with us.
PARMA captain Stanislav Ilnitskiy played for Lokomotiv for 4 seasons, from 2017 to 2022. During this time, the power forward was twice invited to the VTB United League All-Star Game, and this season he’s averaging 1.5 points, 6.0 rebounds (second on the team), 1.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks (leading PARMA in this category).
In the VTB United League, PARMA began with two away losses – to UNICS (83:103) and Pari NN (69:73), before sensationally beating CSKA Moscow (83:80) at home and had a good win in Samara (107:57).
As a result, Perm center Alexander Shashkov was named to the Team of the Week. For a player with a Russian passport, he has surprisingly played more seasons abroad (5 in Slovenia and Italy) than in Russia (4). In the VTB United League, this center is averaging 9.5 points (with a truly sensational 3-point percentage of 71.4% on 1.8 attempts per game), 3.8 rebounds, and 1.0 assists.
The main scorer for PARMA this year is point guard Brendan Adams: 15.8 points (with 42.8% 3-point shooting – 3.0 of 7.0 attempts) and 4.8 assists. Brendan has a brother, Jaylen, who briefly played in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trailblazers, and Milwaukee Bucks, but his full namesake, who also plays for PARMA, is simply a full namesake.
As for Brendan, he played for Samara last season, then left for Hapoel Holon, and now he’s back.
Another Perm Adams is named Jaylen. He’s also listed as a point guard, though he started the season playing shooting guard alongside his aforementioned namesake Brendan (they were friends at George Washington College, by the way). This is Jaylen‘s first season in Russia, and now he’s averaging 13.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.3 steals.
Center Terrell Carter had a strong debut in the VTB United League, averaging 12.3 points, 7.0 rebounds (top-5 in the league), 2.0 assists, and 1.3 steals. Lokomotiv’s Vince Hunter named Carter among the players he’s especially looking forward to playing against.
PARMA’s other center, young Gleb Firsov, is also showing excellent performance. The Perm team has a bunch of 19- and 20-year-old prospects this season: Lev Svinin, Ivan Yegorov, Mikhail Stafeyev, but Firsov is by far the best so far: 10.8 points and 2.8 rebounds.
Last year’s Yenisei main star, shooting guard Victor Sanders, fit in perfectly with the Perm team: 10.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.8 steals.
As for the plus-minus indicator, Timofey Yakushin (+23) is in the lead for PARMA by far, but he only played once, against Samara, so it’s important to mention who’s second behind Yakushin – power forward Alexander Zakharov (+/–10,7, 8.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.0 steals).
A victory over PARMA on October 15 will allow Lokomotiv Kuban to start the Winline Basket Cup just like we want to.
Go Loko!